Relief Next To Me On The Fourth Drink Instinct
by Natushka-86
Summary: MikeKate; But Mike’s already moving, holding Kate tightly to his chest, trying not to jostle her


**_Title:_** Relief Next to me on the Fourth Drink Instinct; Four times Kate gets hurt and Mike has to deal with the fallout and the one time its the other way round.  
_**Author:** _Nat  
_**Summary:**_ _But Mike's already moving, holding Kate tightly to his chest, trying not to jostle her  
**Pairing:**_ Mike/Kate  
_**Rating:**_ PG-13  
_**Spoilers:**_ None  
_**Disclaimer:**_ I own nothing *sad*  
_**A/N:**_ Some old fic I've forgotten to put up here.

**I.**

"Jesus Christ." Mike breathes as Buffer hauls Kate up and into his arms.

She's unconscious and pale and her vest and jumpsuit are stained with blood and it just seems to be getting worse. Next to him Swain seems to be staring horrified, his eyes wide and stunned. Mike understands the panic, the way it swells in your stomach circling. But now's not the time.

"Swain!" He snaps, his voice almost cracking.

Swain's nodding and blinking, then stammers, "Let's get her below."

But Mike's already moving, holding Kate tightly to his chest, trying not to jostle her. He can hear Swain following behind him and the faint murmurs from the rest of the worried crew.

When he lies her down gently on the couch in the make shift infirmary she comes to, hissing as she moves her shoulder.

"Kate, lay still," he says as he takes hold of one of her hands, letting her squeeze it as a pain relief, "you've been shot and we need Swain to take a look at it."

He doesn't let her hand go as they cut away her clothing and vest, her grip tight and reassuring for him, letting him know she is very much alive. Her eyes are glassy with tears, but god, she's so strong and won't let them fall and it's only when she squeezes her eyes shut tight during Swains examination that they escape trailing over her cheeks as she whimpers.

Moving in closer he wipes them away, whispering soft words of encouragement.

(She tries to smile up at him, it's shaky and awkward and full of pain, but she tells him not to worry, she'll be ok.)

The rest of the crew smile and laugh and he sighs in sweet relief.

**II.**

He sees the boarding party come running out into view yelling frantically and one by one they all start jumping over board and start swimming for their lives. Kate's voice crackles over the radio a second later, her tone rushed and slightly panicked, all professionalism gone out the window.

"Sir, this ship is going to explode. I repeat, this ship is going to explode. Some sort of brace positions would be good."

And before he can even look at Nav, wondering what the hell is going on, he watches Kate launch herself over the edge of the ship as a massive explosion rockets the sky, propelling her through the air and she hits the water hard. The noise makes him flinch and he can feel the heat from the flames where the Hammersley is sitting, debris flying through the air and landing in the ocean with loud splashes.

He hasn't even started yelling orders yet, but Swain and Chefo are already down standing by to get on the rib, while Charge is barking out commands getting it ready and before he realizes it he's handing his binoculars off to Nav and rushing down to be part of the rescue party.

They're in the water within minutes

ET and Buffer seem to be fine and floating in the water waiting to be picked up, but Spida is screaming loudly and waving one of his arms hysterically trying to get their attention, and that's when he notices the blonde haired woman in his other arm as he tries to keep them both afloat.

When they pull up beside Spida, the first thing he says is, "She's not breathing"

He's the first reaching for Kate, hauling her up into the rib on his own. He lays her out flat as much as he can in the rib, noticing the gash on her forehead but there is no time to deal with that because Swains checking her airways and pulse, and they start CPR straight away like a well rehearsed team. Swain starts the compressions on her chest, and then he's trying to breathe life back into her.

"Come on Kate," he whispers to himself, his own heart in his throat.

Kate bolts upright suddenly, coughing and sputtering, and she's grabbing onto one of his arms slightly panicked. He puts a hand on the side of her face trying to calm her down, his thumb stroking her cheek.

"Shhh X, deep breaths, calm down, you're ok."

He moves behind her then, and pulls her up against him holding her up, feeling her breaths as she breathes. He nods to Swain that she's ok, and to starting collecting ET and Buffer. Spida looks freaked out, and he tries to smile reassuringly at the kid, but then Kate moves against him.

"Easy there X."

Kate touches her forehead wincing, and then pulls her hand away opening her eyes, she sees the blood on her fingers.

"No wonder I have a headache, "she murmurs, leaning back on him.

Spida chokes out a laugh as Swain smiles and he grins with them, all of them knowing she'll be ok.

"We'll get you some aspirin for that when we get back on the Hammersley, X." he says, as he feels a great relief lifted off his shoulders.

**III.**

"You should have seen it!" He hears Spida gush, as he stands just outside the Galley, "She was awesome."

"Got a little crush there, have we Spida?" Chefo retorts.

"No!" Spida protests, "Tell them Buffer, it was awesome."

"The X was very impressive," Buffers voice raises above all the laughter, "Cool, calm and collected through the whole thing." Then Buffer pauses, and he can hear pure admiration in his voice, "She dropped him like a bag of bricks."

"Yeah," Spida starts up again, "The guy was twice her size!"

He moves away from the galley then, heading towards the make shift infirmary where Kate is with Swain having her injuries looked at. The sight of her coming back to the Hammersley bruised and bleeding stirred something within him, something that he doesn't even know how to begin to explain. But the worry was overwhelming.

As soon as he enters the cabin Kate's voice hits his ears.

"I'm fine."

Kate's looking directly at him, and he can't help but wince just looking at her. The bruising is already starting to come out around her eye and over her cheek bone, the cut on her arm all bandaged up now, but more bruising is obvious on her wrists and her split lip looks tender.

He looks at Swain.

Swain shrugs lightly, "Physically she's telling the truth boss. I don't think she has a concussion, but I told her to let me know immediately if she starts to feel dizzy or nauseous."

"Thanks Swain" he nods, silently dismissing him.

Swain moves from the room, leaving him with Kate.

"So," he begins, squatting down in front of her, "Spida's telling everyone you took on 5 ninja's that were 10 foot something with your hands tied behind your back and dropped them all without breaking a sweat."

That breaks the ice, a slow smile spreading across her lips and she laughs softly.

"It wasn't quite like that sir."

"Well Spida is very impressed either way. Spida, Buffer and yourself are going to get some sort of reputation X. I don't think I've seen a boarding party walk into trouble on so many different occasions." He says smiling gently at her.

Kate seems to consider this, then shrugs, "We always have good outcomes, don't we?"

That, for some reason, makes him still, and he can feel a tension start to radiate through him. Yes they had always gotten the job done, and the outcome was always in their favor, but for how long? The thing that he has to remember is that she wasn't being reckless out there. It was the job, and it was dangerous. He knew that, but it didn't stop the knot of anxiety that formed in his stomach when she went out.

When he doesn't answer her straight away, she frowns at him, like she's readying herself for a fight, like she thinks he's going to question her training and ability to do the job right.

"With all due respect Sir, it was one guy that didn't want to listen to a woman tell him what to do. I got knocked down once. It wasn't going to happen a second time. I can handle myself out there. I'm capable. I've trained for this and I'm good at it, or other wise I wouldn't be here. I'm sure Buffer or Spida would agree-"

"Kate." He cuts through her speech, his fingers touching her knee lightly and she instantly stills, "I'm not questioning your ability to do your job. I just don't like seeing you like this."

And there it was. He knew there was more too it, but it was as close to the truth as he would go. He watches the realization form in her eyes and her features soften.

She shifts faintly, her fingertips reaching out and touching his.

It was all she could do, and it meant more to him than anything she could have said.

**IV. **

As soon as they had stepped ashore Kate had looked at him awaiting instructions, but this was her domain and he was the one stepping onto it. It was rare that they were both on shore at the same time, but the aftermath of hurricane Katrina was disastrous and they needed all the hands they could get. Debris lay everywhere and there were still reports of people missing. He had looked straight back at Kate and said, "This is your show X." Knowing she was completely capable with handling anything.

But not only that, he was quite happy to follow her command, in fact he liked watching her while she was in command, the ease in which she directed everyone and set them to work without hesitation. She knew what had to be done, and she had it all worked out in her mind which was the most efficient way to go about it.

That's how he found himself moving bits of debris with her, large pieces of tin and wood, another home destroyed. It was such a tragedy.

One second he was laughing with her, teasing her about her capability to do some hard labour, while they dug through the rubble next to what was left standing of a house, and then the next he heard a loud snap, like wood breaking and she was gone, with an echo of his name floating in the air.

He ran to where she was standing before, finding a wooden board with a large chuck missing in the middle. He peeled the wood back, throwing it behind him and pulled a torch from his pocket.

"X!" he yelled, as he shined the torch down the hole. It looked like an old well. He imagined that all the water was all dried up now, that's why the cover was over it. He couldn't see anything, just a dark black abyss. He reached for his radio and after a short conversation with Buffer telling him to bring a harness and a winch, he turned back to the well.

"X! Can you hear me?"

The longer she was unresponsive, the more his mind started to conjure up all sorts of different scenarios and his heart was beating so hard in his chest he thought it was going to beat through it. "Come on Kate." he murmured.

Then he heard it, a slight ricochet. A cough. He listened again. An echoed "Sir" hit his ears.

"Kate! Are you ok?"

There was more coughing and some shuffling and he thought he heard a groan.

"I'm ok sir. I think I fell on my knee, its hurting pretty bad. Otherwise I'm fine."

"Ok, I'm going to toss you down my torch."

"Sir, no offense but I'd rather not see what's down here."

He laughed. She coughed, and he replied "To bad X." and then turned it on and let it drop from his fingers. When it hit the ground, he felt relieved. He could still only make out the light beam, but it was a start and meant that she hadn't fallen that far. There was a yelp then, and he thought he heard her say some thing like 'disgusting'.

Buffer arrived then, with Spida and all the gear in tow.

"How's the X sir? Has she been responsive?"

"Oh she's been responsive. Apparently disgusted that she's still down there."

Spida grinned and Buffer sent him to work, then turned to yell down the well, "Don't worry Ma'am, we'll have you outta there in no time at all."

"Thanks Buffer, I knew I could count on you. The Captain just seems to want to stand around all day talking." Kate's echoed reply came, and they all laughed.

She was lifted out of the well about 20 minutes later, dirty and bruised, cuts and scrapes all over her arms and he was the first one reaching for her, unclipping her harness. Kate whimpered as she tried to put weight on her knee and he pulled her to his side instantly, holding her up and taking most of her weight for her. She leaned on him heavily, accepting his help and wrapped her arm around his neck.

Buffer hovered at her other side, his hand touching her hip nonchalantly, "How you doing there X?"

He watched her carefully, she seemed exhausted, her eyes were glassy with tears and he realized she must have been in more pain than she was letting on. Kate smiled at them, bright and dazzling, though a bit shaky.

"I'm ok, but I could use a stiff drink."

He reached up and took hold of the hand that was around his shoulders, running his thumb over her knuckles and he'd never felt so much overwhelming relief in his life.

"I think we might be able to arrange that X." he retorts as Kate lifts her other arm over Buffers shoulders so he can help take her weight from the other side.

"I knew you sailors were good for something" She counters, as they start to move her and he thinks to himself, this woman has 9 lives.

**V.**

"I can't believe you started a bar fight."

"I didn't start it," He protests, shifting the ice pack on his cheekbone and he winces slightly. He's sitting in Kate's kitchen, after she said that she'd take him home and patch him up.

Kate just raises one of her eyebrows at him, and looks amused. He can't believe he started a bar fight either, really. But then again, "I was defending you honor."

He'd been talking to Kate most of the night, and he'd barely left her side as they chatted animatedly about the Navy and different postings and different ships and trading embarrassing stories about their junior ranked days. It was nice, for once, for them not to be arguing and it felt like it had when he had first met her at the Academy years ago.

Kate had been beautiful then, he remembers, smart and sharp as well, always a step outside the crowd, but that seemed to be the way she liked it. She was brilliant and he'd been blow away by it, intensely curious about the way her mind worked.

Now though, it had seemed like she'd grown more into her own skin and even though things had been awkward at first, he was glad that fate had assigned her to his command.

Kate had gone to the bar to get the next round, his eyes never leaving her form. Then some guy had made the mistake of hitting on her, and slapping her on the ass while some crude words left his mouth after Kate wouldn't give him the time of day and then the next thing he knew was he was stepping in telling the guy to apologize to Kate.

Of course he didn't, and then Spida and Buffer stepped up next to him asking what was going on and the other guy's mates started getting aggressive. That's when he's pretty sure he copped the first punch.

He moves the icepack again and Kate still looks like she wants to laugh.

"Well remember this the next time you want to defend my honor, and also remember I can take care of myself."

He'd scowl at her if he could, but it hurts too much to move his face. How could he explain it to her without sounding like a complete sap? He knows that she can take care of herself, he's pretty sure she could have broken the guys arm if she hadn't been carrying two beer glasses. But it wasn't about that.

"Kate." He says, reaching out with the hand that isn't holding the ice pack to touch her arm lightly, stilling her movements, "I know you can look after yourself. This wasn't about that."

Kate stops and looks at him then and he can see the confusion in her eyes.

He tries to put his thoughts in ordered, but they'd both agreed not to do this; to leave the past in the past, but it's catching up with him and he's finding it harder and harder not to act on it. He looks at her as honestly as he can, hoping he won't have to say it and she'll just be able to figure it out on her own, like she always did.

"No one should ever speak to you like that, Kate."

Kate is still for a long time, and it makes him uneasy, like maybe she didn't get it or that maybe she's trying to deny so strongly what had happened between them once, that she won't let it out again. But then she moves, her hand pulling the hand that's holding the icepack away from his face and he frowns, then winces because it hurt. Kate smiles softly at him and then leans forward until her lips brush his and it takes him completely by surprise that he has no reaction at all.

Her lips are soft, yet firm against his, her hand stroking his good cheek. The kiss is short, but she lingers close for a second and that's enough time and enough of an invitation for him to curl his fingers into her hair and pull her down again his mouth, slanting over hers, pushing it deeper than before. Her mouth opens under his and all he can feel is heat, red hot heat and suddenly he wants her desperately, he wants her naked and under him and he'd never felt anything so possessive in his life.

When she pulls away slowly, a small smile playing on her lips, all blonde hair and gorgeous curves he knows that he can't let her go again. He's done it once and barely survived, but maybe this is his second chance because since she came back into his life he hasn't been able to get her out of his head and that makes him think that there has to be a way for this to work.

But there would be time for that, for now he just wants to feel her next to him and against him, feel her warmth seep through to his soul. Leaning in to kiss her again, if this is what he got after a bar fight, then nothing had ever been worth this much effort he thought to himself, smiling against her lips.

_fin_


End file.
